Sculpture (MA)
Geunbae Yang
Artist based in Seoul, South Korea.
Born in 1995.
2014-2015 Goldsmiths Fine Art Extension Course.
2015-2018 Goldsmiths BA Hons Fine Art.
2018-2020 Royal College of Art, MA Sculpture.
2019 DIRTY HANDS & Revelation Standpoint Gallery, London, UK.
2020 CAMP 2020 (Contemporary Arts & Mutational Plans), Camp Long Eagle, Wonju-si, South Korea.
I am keenly interested in metaphysics, and express phenomena and emotions that occur between the real world and possible worlds through my own poetic interpretation.
Due to personality, mindset, growth background, beliefs, the world that each person is different. Coexistence amongst people, who believe different things to be the true creates diversity but also conflict and violence. It is natural to struggle for the ‘I’ or ‘things I believe to be truth’ exist as subjectivity. Ironically however, there is no ‘I’ without ‘you’. I understand other’s differences in our inevitably intertwined relationship as a glitch that can be felt in the real world, and I present another perspective of understanding the world through the uncanny given by the glitch.
Resolution, 2020
I always consider that there is another world besides the world in which we see and feel things. Come to think of it, I hope that the nostalgic beings that no longer exist in this world will still exist somewhere else. My earnest desires may seem trivial but they have developed into a sense of responsibility that this hope should exist as a reasonable logic based on academic knowledge and not merely limited by my personal wish. So, I started to explore the philosophical and scientific knowledge that relates to metaphysics.
First of all, I had to disprove the perfection of this world to prove that this world we live in is not an absolute and entire world. And it is the virtual world and the digital elements that are the reference points for this disproof. To find out if our universe is a virtual reality like a computer program, or at least if it works in a similar way, we need to find out the biggest difference between the real world that we intuitively understand and manmade computer programs.
The difference between virtual reality and physical reality is the difference between density and concentration. If a hologram without a substance becomes dense enough to be tangible, can we still say that the hologram is virtual? The difference between virtual reality and physical reality is only a difference in resolution. It is just that the real world is so sophisticatedly built, and the resources that make it up are never infinite. After all, there is a void/crack somewhere, and nobody knows where it leads to. The fact that our universe operates as a finite resource has already been proved by many experiments and scientific discoveries, and the claims of the limits of the universe are narrowed down by the emergence of fairly logical hypotheses. Significant discoveries such as relativity theory and quantum mechanics make my delusion more rich and creative. The more I mathematically understand the meaninglessly disordered universe, the more ideological concepts appear logical rather than as vague stories in the clouds.
First of all, I had to disprove the perfection of this world to prove that this world we live in is not an absolute and entire world. And it is the virtual world and the digital elements that are the reference points for this disproof. To find out if our universe is a virtual reality like a computer program, or at least if it works in a similar way, we need to find out the biggest difference between the real world that we intuitively understand and manmade computer programs.
The difference between virtual reality and physical reality is the difference between density and concentration. If a hologram without a substance becomes dense enough to be tangible, can we still say that the hologram is virtual? The difference between virtual reality and physical reality is only a difference in resolution. It is just that the real world is so sophisticatedly built, and the resources that make it up are never infinite. After all, there is a void/crack somewhere, and nobody knows where it leads to. The fact that our universe operates as a finite resource has already been proved by many experiments and scientific discoveries, and the claims of the limits of the universe are narrowed down by the emergence of fairly logical hypotheses. Significant discoveries such as relativity theory and quantum mechanics make my delusion more rich and creative. The more I mathematically understand the meaninglessly disordered universe, the more ideological concepts appear logical rather than as vague stories in the clouds.
Medium:
MDF, Urethane, Asphalt, Volcanic Stones, Space abandoned for 10 years.Size:
Size Variable
Resolution, 2020
Going one step forward, Nietzsche’s eternal regression and reflections on humanity and nature in Oriental philosophy gives us another direction to take beyond space and time. If our lives are not driven by the choices we make, if there is no coincidence or fate; no desires and feelings, but it is simply a phenomenon composed of infinite repetition of causality, would there be meanings in our lives? Nietzsche says that the true way to find the meaning of life against this nihilism is to become Übermensch(Superman). In Buddhism, it refers to liberation/nirvana. Nature is always calmly there and only obeys the laws of the universe. It is only our desires and emotions that wriggle there. Isn’t this like another form of heaven and hell? Heaven and Hell are absolute spaces. In those spaces, nothing changes, including time, and everything works only according to the order provided by the space. The waking up of a stationary space is just a human who expresses all kinds of emotions.
Medium:
MDF, Urethane, Asphalt, Volcanic Stones, Space abandoned for 10 years.Size:
Size Variable
Gustave Doré, Illustration in Dante’s Divine Comedy (19th century)
Fan Kuan, Travelers among mountains and streams (10th century)
The illustrations of Gustave Doré and the landscape paintings of Fan Kuan show a variety of conditions of human beings in nature, and in the universe. Compared to the vastness of nature, human presence is only a small particle. In Doré‘s illustration, the human’s dramatic struggle gradually permeates the landscape of hell and eventually assimilates into one. It is a work that shows at a glance the location of human beings with desires and emotions, even in places like hell or life after death beyond space and time. I think of this in reverse. Like Adam and Eve, who were expelled from the Garden of Eden by eating a fruit of good and evil because they could not suppress their desires, humans are also unique beings that radiate away from nature.
Like Levin in Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina’, when he was reaping, he freed himself from his ego and came to the state of liberation, becoming one with nature. After all, it is only a fine line between heaven and hell. It would be heaven if we could transcend space and time to accept our position in the universe and exercise Übermensch at that moment to feel a true happiness; and it would be hell if we become a passive nihilist as in Nietzsche‘s concerns. And the heaven and hell are probably not at idea, outside the world, but merely superimposed in this moment.
Like Levin in Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina’, when he was reaping, he freed himself from his ego and came to the state of liberation, becoming one with nature. After all, it is only a fine line between heaven and hell. It would be heaven if we could transcend space and time to accept our position in the universe and exercise Übermensch at that moment to feel a true happiness; and it would be hell if we become a passive nihilist as in Nietzsche‘s concerns. And the heaven and hell are probably not at idea, outside the world, but merely superimposed in this moment.
Medium:
MDF, Urethane, Asphalt, Volcanic Stones, Space abandoned for 10 years.Size:
Size Variable
Resolution (close-up image)
Resolution (close-up image)
Resolution (close-up image)
Resolution (close-up image)
Resolution (close-up image)
Resolution was exhibited in a Korean National Art and cultural project called CAMP 2020 (Contemporary Arts & Mutational Plans), this project was held in Camp Long in Wonju-si in South Korea as its name would suggest. This camp had been temporarily occupied by US Military since 1969, and 10 years ago the US army moved to a different location due to contamination of the soil. The camp was abandoned for a decade and was not returned to the Korean state until last year 2019. Although it was located in Korea, it was neither a Korean nor an American territory for many reasons. Of course, people were not able to access in the camp unless they were permitted by the government. Only the nature completely occupied in this place. Hard concrete and asphalt, which never usually broke, were shattered into pieces as trees grew up penetrating the ground. I collected these pieces of asphalt one by one and sprinkled them around Resolution.